System and method for providing unified transport and security protocols

Abstract

The system and method described herein may provide unified transport and security protocols. In particular, the unified transport and security protocols may include a Secure Frame Layer transport and security protocol that includes stages for initially configuring a requester device and a responder device, identifying the requester device and the responder device to one another, and authenticating message frames communicated between the requester device and the responder device. Additionally, the unified transport and security protocols may further include a Secure Persistent User Datagram Protocol that includes modes for processing message frames received at the requester device and the responder device, recovering the requester device in response to packet loss, retransmitting lost packets sent between the requester device and the responder device, and updating location information for the requester device to restore a communications session between the requester device and the responder device.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 956,568, entitled “System and Method for Protecting Network Resources from Denial of Service Attacks,” filed Oct. 1, 2004, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,774,841 on Aug. 10, 2010, and to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 694,174, entitled “System and Method for Protecting Communication Devices from Denial of Service Attacks,” filed Mar. 30, 2007, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,759 on May 3, 2011, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention generally relates to a system and method for providing unified transport and security protocols, and in particular, to a Secure Frame Layer transport and security protocol that includes stages for initially configuring a requester device and a responder device, identifying the requester device and the responder device to one another, and authenticating mes...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention describes a new transport and security protocol that combines the features of the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) with the reliability and ordering guarantees of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The protocol includes a secure frame layer (SFL) transport and security protocol for managing data transfer and authentication for packets communicated between network devices. It also includes a privacy protected UDP extension referred to as Secure Persistent UDP (SPUDP) that addresses UDP packet loss, maintains communication sessions, and defends against denial of service attacks. The protocol can be used to prevent denial of service attacks at both the requester device and the responder device, and it is less vulnerable to denial of service or distributed denial of service attacks than other protocols based on signatures or Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates. The protocol also includes an Initial Configuration Stage, a Session Mutual Authentication Stage, a Dynamic Data Communication Stage, a receive mode, a recovery mode, a retransmission mode, and an update mode. It is designed to prevent denial of service or distributed denial of service attacks and to ensure statelessness.

Problems solved by technology

However, UDP generally does not provide the reliability and ordering guarantees provided by protocols such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), as datagrams may be dropped without notice or arrive out of order.

Images